Top Hotels in Curral Velho with Spas

Firstly I'll start off by saying that we had read the reviews before booking this hotel, we knew to expect tired rooms etc but that generally people enjoyed their stay here and went with an open mind We recently visited the Riu Touareg for 11 nights in a large group (7 adults and 7 kids). I'll start with the negatives and end with the good stuff..... When we arrived our room was a big let down. While we expected it to be tired and in need of modernising, I wasn't expecting nearly all the furniture to be quite badly damaged, bits broken off, glass tops missing, and the extremely strong sulphur smell from the toilet. We had a family room booked and we were in block 6. Our friends in the same block didn't have the same smell we did so it seems this is only in some rooms but does seem to be a problem often reported in reviews and on the facebook groups. While it sounds insignificant it was overwhelming at times leaving you not wanting to use the toilet in the room at all. I'm aware this is an underdeveloped country but this isn't' an issue in all rooms or at other hotels (stayed at the Karamboa in November) so it's definitely something the hotel could do with addressing. The living room area with sofa bed was ok, the sofa bed was broken at the bottom (supports under the mattress were missing), the sofa bed could be slept on but nobody could sit on the bottom of the bed as would fall through leaving nowhere to sit other than on the main bed in the bedroom. The main bedroom was extremely dark. The only window in the room is a small window high up on the wall that faced into the corridor and people on the floors above can look down into your room so it's not suitable to have the curtains open when getting changed or ready to go out. This along with all the dark furniture and poor lighting made the room very dark. Again the furniture in the room had broken parts and missing glass tops. it absolutely needs brightening up and some new furniture to update it a little....or at least the broken furniture needs replacing. Although the room was a let down it was very clean and a decent size, bathroom was clean with a good size shower but no light in the shower so again very dark but got used to this. On the first day we headed over to the main room and I was really shocked at the poor state of the pool area. All around the edges of the pool looked dirty with damaged cement, broken tiles, discolored areas etc. It really is in desperate need of updating. The lovely wooden bridges that you see in the images online are very worn and in need of replacing with thick green mould/algae under the wooden planks. There are large brown marks all over the bottom of the pool (I think maybe rust) and loads of areas of broken tiles, the kids we're often collecting broken pieces of tile from the floor of the pool. The whole pool area felt run down and is desperate need of repair. We did have someone in our party that has a food allergy and unfortunately there was

First time visiting the RIU karamboa and what a experience it was. From checking in to leaveing the staff have been nothing but friendly, the cleaners, receptionists, bar staff, entertainers etc..... All very polite, happy going people. The food is amazing, such a variety aswell. Food I've never had and it was spot on. The pool bar staff are the most entertaining people you will ever meet, bar opens at 10:30am and from opening to close they are always smiling, laughing and singing to the music, they just make you feel so welcome. The hotel it self is 5* rated and we've had a 5*service throughout, amazing 10 days we've had and will definitely be returning when the new refurb has happened. Obrigada :)